Weedflower

Although living in the internment camps creates several hardships, Kadohata shows that perhaps the most difficult aspect of camp life was feeling a lack of purpose. Sumiko feels lazy as day after day stretches on in the Poston heat. She remembers Jiichan’s story of coming to America from Japan on a ship, and the term he used to describe the feeling of laziness that leads to the edge of losing one’s mind: the ultimate boredom. Kadohata continues to use this phrase throughout the novel to show how Sumiko and other characters, like Auntie, experience this feeling.

Kadohata emphasizes that the ultimate boredom is worse than Sumiko’s fear of what may happen to them next or what the government may do. It’s an ever-present threat that Sumiko must resist. Kadohata shows how other people in the camp are afflicted by boredom and laziness too. Mr. Moto’s son often stays in bed, and even Sumiko’s usually industrious, Auntie shows signs of lethargy until she finds her sewing group. Kadohata suggests that finding a task of some kind within the camp was the only way to escape the weight of time dragging. She demonstrates this when Sumiko starts a garden with Mr. Moto and finds a renewed sense of energy and purpose. In fact, Kadohata shows that many of the Japanese people in the camps found industrious ways of spending their time—starting jobs, joining clubs, gardening, and playing sports.

Through the ultimate boredom motif, Kadohata provides a perspective of everyday life in the internment camps. In addition, she emphasizes a less obvious hardship that was nevertheless difficult to overcome.